Article author:
Associated Press
Farai Mutsaka
Harare, Zimbabwe (AP) — African health officials treat the growing monkeypox outbreak as an emergency and COVID in rich countries Share the world's limited supply of vaccines to avoid the obvious fairness issues seen during the -19 outbreak.
Monkeypox has sickened people in parts of Central and West Africa for decades, but lack of laboratory diagnosis and weak surveillance have led to many cases throughout the continent. It means that it is not detected. To date, African countries have reported more than 1,800 suspicious cases, including more than 70 deaths so far this year, but only 109 have been identified in the lab.
"For us, this particular outbreak means an emergency," said Ahmed Ogwell, Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa. "We now want to treat monkeypox as an emergency so that it doesn't cause more pain or distress," he said.
Last week, the WHO concluded that the emergency committee was worried about the growing monkeypox outbreak, but said it had not yet guaranteed that it would be declared a global health emergency. rice field. The United Nations health agency said it would reconsider its decision if the disease continued to spread across national borders, showed signs of increasing severity, or began to infect vulnerable groups such as pregnant women and children.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 5,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 51 countries worldwide. Most of those cases are in Europe. No deaths have been reported outside of Africa.
Within Africa, WHO said monkeypox has spread to previously unseen countries such as South Africa, Ghana and Morocco. However, according to Dr. Moeti Matshidiso, WHO's Director of Africa, more than 90% of continental infectious diseases occur in Congo and Nigeria.
She said that given the limited global supply of vaccines to combat monkeypox, WHO is a manufacturer and stockpile to see if they are shared. He said he was in talks with a country. Vaccines were developed primarily to stop smallpox, related illnesses — and most are not allowed to be used against monkeypox in Africa. Vaccines have never been used to eradicate the monkeypox epidemic in Africa. Authorities have relied primarily on means such as contact tracing and quarantine.
"We hope that the global spotlight on monkeypox will act as a catalyst to completely defeat the disease in Africa," she said at a press conference Thursday. I mentioned in.
WHO said that, like last year's scrambled COVID-19 vaccine, countries supplying monkeypox-blocking vaccines have not yet shared them with African countries.
"No donations have been donated to (poor) countries," said Fiona Braca, who heads the WHO emergency response team in Africa. "We know that those countries that have some stocks reserve them primarily for their own population."
WHO said last month. He said he is working to create a mechanism for vaccines to be shared with the countries with the greatest outbreaks. This could send the vaccine to developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France. And those who already have their own supplies.
Cases of monkeypox in Europe and North America have been identified primarily in men sleeping with gay, bisexual, or other men, but in Africa. But that's not the case.
WHO's Tieble Traore said that the number of cases of monkeypox is almost evenly divided between men and women, according to detailed data from Ghana.
"We haven't seen a spread among men who have sex with men yet," he said.
The majority of cases of monkeypox in the United Kingdom, which have the highest incidence across Africa, are male, and authorities have stated that "a defined sexual network of gay, bisexual, or male. It is expanding only within. " Sex with men.
Scientists warn that close physical contact with infected patients and their clothing and sheets poses a risk of catching monkeypox.
In Africa, monkeypox is predominantly prevalent in infected wildlife, such as rodents and primates. It usually does not cause widespread outbreaks or rapid spread among people.
-
Contributed by Maria Cheng, an AP journalist in London.